1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a surgical instrument for staple suturing, this having a central journal and a staple magazine that is secured to a handgrip, and a pilot head releasably secured at the end of the journal, this having a hemispherical outer surface and an anvil surface that is perpendicular to the axis of the journal and facing the staple magazine, said instrument being used to perform an anastomosis. The invention further relates to a stapling head for such an instrument.
2. Description of the Related Art
A staple suturing machine of this type is already known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,193,165. This instrument consists essentially of a cylindrical body having at one end a handle and a lever, in which a journal is received so as to be axially displaceable. At the end of the cylindrical body that is opposite the handle there is a staple magazine with a circular scalpel. The magazine contains stainless steel staples. A hemispherical pilot head is secured at the end of the journal. In order to perform an anastomosis, a purse-string suture is made at the the ends of, for example, the intestine ends that are to be joined. The staple suturing instrument is then introduced through an opening made in the side of one of the intestine ends, to the point that the tip of the pilot head emerges. Once the pilot head has been distanced slightly from the staple magazine, one end of the intestine is passed around the staple magazine and the other intestine end is passed around the pilot head and knotted about the journal by the purse-string suture. Next, the joining process is initiated, in that the pilot head is pressed against the staple magazine and the staples are forced into the structures that are to be anastomised. At the same time, the ends of the intestine with the sutures are separated by the circular scalpel. However, this known procedure entails the disadvantage that the whole of the pilot head has to be introduced through the purse-string suture of the second intestine end. The difficulty lies primarily in the difficulty of passing the second end of the intestine with the purse-string suture over the pilot head without damaging either the purse-string suture or the intestine.
It is the task of the present invention to produce a staple suturing instrument by which, while avoiding the disadvantages set out above, a relatively simple and problem-free introduction of the staple magazine and the pilot head into the required end of the organs to be anastomised is made possible.